"The Bible commands wives to OBEY their own husband [sic] (1st Peter 3:1-5). To teach anything else is rebellion against the Scriptures. Dr. Curtis Hutson and Dr. Rice are 100% correct. Ephesians 5:24 plainly states that a wife is to be subject (Greek, hupotasso, meaning, TO OBEY, to put in subjection under) to her own husband, just as she would to Jesus Christ." (http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Feminism/everything.htm)
Let's consider what this phrase "just as she would to Jesus Christ" actually means.
Why do we as Christians obey Jesus? Because he is our Lord, or because he is the truth?
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6, NIV).
We obey Jesus because he is the truth, because the truth sets us free from error and sin.
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? (Gal 5:7, NIV)
Those who refuse to follow the truth will receive a just judgment according to what they have done.
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger (Rom 2:5-8, NIV).
As Christians, we have the truth within us, but we aren't the truth. And because we aren't the truth, sometimes we take a trip to the dark side and sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8-9, NIV).
Now, if we obey Jesus because he is the truth, and none of us is the truth, how can a married woman obey her husband the way the church obeys Jesus?
She cannot.
To make the impossibility of the situation even more clear: can we worship a created being the way we worship God?
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen (Rom 1:25, NIV).
If the church worships Jesus and therefore serves Jesus, should a wife worship her husband? According to some, the answer is a startling yes.
Sarah Grimke, the 19th-century American author, abolitionist, and suffragist wrote the following:
If man is constituted the governor of woman, he must be her God; and the sentiment expressed to me lately, by a married man, is perfectly correct: ‘In my opinion,’ said he, ‘the greatest excellence to which married woman can attain, is to worship her husband.’ He was a professor of religion – his wife a lovely and intelligent woman. He spoke out what thousands think and act. Women are indebted to Milton for giving to this false notion, ‘confirmation strong as proof of holy writ.’ His Eve is embellished with every personal grace, to gratify the eye of her admiring husband; but he seems to have furnished the mother of mankind with just enough intelligence enough to comprehend her supposed inferiority to Adam, and to yield unresisting submission to her lord and master. Milton puts into Eve’s mouth the following address to Adam: “My author and disposer, what thou bidst, unargued I obey; so God ordains – God is thy law; thou mine: to know no more, is woman’s happiest knowledge and her praise.” This much admired sentimental nonsense is fraught with absurdity and wickedness. If it were true, the commandment of Jehovah should have run thus: Mans hall have no other gods before ME, and woman shall have no other gods before MAN.” [1]
If a wife must obey her husband the way the church obeys Jesus, the husband must by necessity by a god whom the wife must also worship, for it would be rather strange to say that the church should obey Jesus, but not worship him. So, where do we draw the line?
While it is true that we must see Jesus in others and therefore serve others the way we serve Jesus (Matt 25:40), nowhere does the Bible encourage humans to worship other humans the way they worship God. In fact, we are expressly forbidden from having other gods and forming idols (Ex 20:2-4). The reason we as Christians serve others is because we love them, not because they have authority over us.
In fact, a husband who commands his wife to obey him is asking his wife to violate God's commandments in favor of a man-made commandment he himself has created. Jesus had a few choice words on this subject:
And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
(Mark 7:9-13, NIV)
If a married woman is not allowed to follow her own conscience, she cannot worship and obey God (Rom 14:23). Instead, she is forever doomed to be an idolater, worshiping and obeying her idol, her husband. How well does this sit with Stewart's other exhortations to avoid idolatry?
[1] Sarah Grimke, “Letter XIII, Relation of Husband and
Wife,” Letters on the Equality of the
Sexes and the Condition of Woman, ” 1837.
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